Hotline Sort: Elizabeth Warren's Campaign Shakeup

By Julie Sobel

7) Two new campaign ads for Nevada Democratic Senate nominee Shelley Berkley today: See one here, and the other, a Spanish-language ad focused on the DREAM Act, here.
6) The Connecticut Senate race is heating up, and both parties are acting like it's a very close race.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is going up with a $320,000 ad buy to support Rep. Chris Murphy.
And Murphy is going up with a new ad hitting GOP nominee Linda McMahon on her record as WWE CEO.
Meanwhile, McMahon qualified for the Independent ballot line.
5) After a nasty primary campaign in which opponent Anthony Gemma accused him of running a voter fraud ring, freshman Democratic Rep. David Cicilline emerged from the Rhode Island 1st District primary with a healthy 62 percent of the vote. (Gemma received 30 percent and a third candidate collected the remainder.) Despite the district's blue hue, the hard part is still to come for Cicilline, whose image is plagued by Providence budget problems left over from his time as the city's mayor. Cicilline faces an unusually strong GOP opponent, former state police superintendent Brendan Doherty in the general. Thanks to the primary and the ability to spend primary funds into September, Cicilline has already hit the district's airwaves with several positive TV spots touting an anti-war, infrastructure-focused message similar to the one that got him elected in 2010.
4) Republican Ovide Lamontagne and Democrat Maggie Hassanwon their respective primaries Tuesday and will square off in New Hampshire's gubernatorial race.
3) The Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC released a half-dozen new television ads today, hitting five House Republican incumbents and one challenger running in a Democratic district. The new ads continue the super PAC's TV campaigns against GOP Rep. Steve King (Iowa's 4th District) and North Carolina state Sen. David Rouzer, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre in the state's 7th District.
The group also released their first ads of the general against Republican Reps. Dan Lungren (California's 7th District), Nan Hayworth (New York's 18th District), Bill Johnson (Ohio's 6th District), and Sean Duffy (Wisconsin's 7th District). The ads all touch on unique issues - for example, Johnson is charged with supporting outsourcing as a businessman and a congressman - but the unifying theme is coziness with D.C. special interests. The total buy across the six districts is worth $2.2 million and the cost in California's 7th District was shared by SEIU.
National Journal Dailyhas a profile of that race, Lungren's rematch with Democrat Ami Bera, today:

The contest is a magnet for outside cash. The Sacramento media market, which includes up to four potentially competitive House races, is saturated with $10 million in ad reservations by the national parties and various super PACs through Election Day.
...
It is also a crucial test of both parties' strength in economically-suffering suburbs such as Elk Grove, once one of the nation's fastest-growing cities but now beset by plummeting home prices and foreclosures. Manicured lawns and colorful flower beds mask the depth of the housing bust. It's an area so hard-hit that local officials are considering exercising eminent domain to buy up troubled mortgages and bail out homeowners.

2) Elizabeth Warren is facing pressure to overhaul her television ads. The Boston Globe:

According to top Democratic leaders in Massachusetts, Warren campaign advisers are considering a new strategy that will be aimed at toning down what those leaders call the preachy tone that has dominated her ads until now. Instead, some of the spots would rely more on the voices of voters from all walks of life describing what Warren's supporters say is the warm personality of a popular university professor. They would also zero in on Brown, acknowledging that while he is a likable public figure, he is not the moderate Republican that he makes himself out to be.
Television ads are considered critical to wooing independent voters in one of the most hotly contested Senate races nationwide.
The Warren campaign said Tuesday that no decisions have been made, but advisers conceded they have been feeling pressure regarding the thrust of the media strategy in these final weeks.

1) President Obama issued a statement this morning on the on the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, condemning the attacks. "I have directed my Administration to provide all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya, and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe," he said. "While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants. "
From National Journal:

After saying earlier that Sept. 11 was not the day to criticize President Obama on foreign policy matters, Mitt Romney late Tuesday issued a statement blasting the Obama administration for its Cairo embassy's apology for anti-Muslim activity in the United States.
...
The White House later sought to distance itself from that statement, according to Politico.
Romney, in his statement, said he was "outraged" by attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi.
"It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said.
The Obama campaign responded early Wednesday morning, lambasting Romney for bringing politics into a tragedy.
"We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

-- Scott Bland and Steven Shepard contributed.

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